CuriousJr, an online coding platform for kids, has raised $1 million in its seed funding round led by WaterBridge Ventures and Enzia Ventures to make coding education accessible to everyone.
The round also saw participation from angel investors such as Aditya Shankar (Co-founder, Doubtnut), Tanushree Nagori (Co-founder, Doubtnut), Abhinav Sinha (COO, OYO), Mohd Wassem (Founder, EasyEat), and Shashank Shekhar (Director- Content Strategy and Operations at ShareChat).
Started in 2020 by Amit Shekhar, Janishar Ali, and Mridul Ranjan, CuriousJr is a mobile-first, vernacular-based, online platform focused on students between the ages 8 and 17 years. The Gurugram-based startup helps students learn coding with the help of bite-sized content, tests their knowledge in a practice arena, and publishes their creations on its app store, which they can then share with friends, family, and the larger community. The platform offers learning content, gamified learning solutions, doubt clearing sessions, and more.
CuriousJr aims to create the most trusted learning platform that provides technology-assisted impact-based learning to 500 million kids across the globe by 2030.
Speaking about the company, Co-founder of CuriousJr Mridul Ranjan said,
“We started CuriousJr to make coding education accessible to everyone, but we realized that 88 percent of the K-12 users in India do not have access to a PC/laptop. That’s why we focused on building India’s first mobile-based code learning platform for K-12 in vernacular languages. We believe that learning in one’s mother tongue empowers young students to think and harness their coding skills more effectively to become excellent coders for tomorrow.”
According to an official statement, the company will use the latest funds to further refine the product and create an engaging learning ecosystem for students. The startup will also focus on community development, expanding its team, and creating more appealing and engaging content for users.
Nilesh Balakrishnan, AVP at WaterBridge Ventures, commented on the investment,
“Coding is quickly evolving into the de facto measure of student success in India. As tech continues to revolutionize the Indian experience, parents have shifted their focus from maths/STEM subjects to computer science-focused expertise. We believe CuriousJr’s mobile product innovation and gamified learning outcomes can democratize coding for millions of young coders across the country.”
Namita Dalmia, Partner at Enzia Ventures, also commented,
“In EdTech, coding for kids is seeing great traction, especially with successes like WhiteHatJr, and the National Education Policy’s recognition of coding as an important skill for kids to learn. CuriousJr is disruptive, and its unique mobile-first learning experience is democratizing learning.”
Namita further added, “Less than a year old, CuriousJr is already demonstrating high traction and user engagement. At Enzia, we see a lot of promise in their vision and technique, and are excited to be partnering with them.”
According to the Co-founder of CuriousJr Janishar Ali, students have created over 75,000 apps and games on its platform, and the startup looks forward to taking this to one million within the next year.
CuriousJr had raised $674,000 in its seed round led by WaterBridge Ventures in June this year.
